Could You Love a Man Who Would Run Away
by brownhairedlass
Summary: What thoughts went through Sinbad's mind when Marina confessed her love for him after they'd failed to retrieve the book from Tartarus?


Failed. After everything they'd been through, after everything they had done to get the book it still hadn't been enough.

He'd failed his crew, he'd failed the twelve cities, and he'd failed Proteus, his best friend who'd put his life on the line for his sake, to give him a chance to get the Book of Peace back and clear his name. And he'd failed Marina.

In a foolish attempt to be the hero she deserved, the hero he wished he could be, he'd failed Eris's test. He'd told a lie, all so that he could seem like the good guy, the better guy, but he was not, and Eris had known it. She'd seen that they were alike, the two of them. But he hadn't wanted to admit to that, to give Eris that satisfaction.

Marina had said nothing. Sinbad decided to be the one to break the silence.

"I'm sorry Marina," he said. An apology was the least of what he owed her, and he wanted her to know that he _was_ sorry.

"Eris was right about me," he admitted. He also owed her his honesty.

But Marina, stubborn as she was, didn't want to hear it.

"No she's not," she said, "you answered her question, you told the truth".

But it wasn't the truth, and he told her as much, that his answer had been an attempt to pass himself off as something he was not. He might have fooled Proteus and he might have fooled Marina too but he knew that they had been wrong to trust him, his failure to retrieve the Book of Peace had proven that. He kept his gaze fixed on his boots.

But Marina was insistent.

"Sinbad I've seen who you are, you don't need to pretend. Eris trapped you. Why should you or Proteus or anyone have to die?"

"Marina—" he tried. Why was she so insistent on believing that he was something other than what he was? He wasn't Proteus, he was a thief and a liar, and Eris was right. He'd betrayed his best friend, he'd made a move on Marina while her fiance was counting down the days until his execution, all because of him. Oh he'd tried to retrieve the book, he had; but had he done it for his friend or to impress a beautiful woman?

"No!" Marina rose to her feet. "You need to escape. Get as far away as you can. I'll go back, I'll explain everything!"

"No, Marina!" he said, following her. If the other ambassedors learned that she had let a traitor escape who knew what they might do to her? She could end up being executed in his place, at best her future would be ruined. Would Syracuse have a queen qho'd allowed a convicted traitor to escape?

"I can't watch you die!" Marina said, her voice thick. Tears were streaming down her face now. "I love you".

Of all the things he'd expected her to say that certainly wasn't it. He'd thought he sensed something between them but he'd never dared to hope that she might feel the same way he did. Because how could she? She was engaged to a prince, a kind, and honorable prince, and he was nothing but a mere pirate. He didn't deserve a woman like her, not in a million years.

But oh how he wanted her, how he wanted to do what she asked him to. How he wanted to run away and live out his days at sea with her, to show her every part of the world that she'd been missing. To be happy.

But how could he be, knowing he'd abandoned his best friend to the mercy of the executioner, knowing the only reason he was alive, the only reason he got to live out his days with the woman he loved was because he'd let an innocent man die? No, he couldn't do that, he didn't want to be that kind of man, and he didn't want Marina to be with that kind of man. Marina deserved better, she deserved better than a life on the run; she deserved someone like Proteus. And whom better to entrust the safety of the woman he loved than his best friend?

He reached out to cup her cheek, to stroke away the tears, to touch her skin and recall the feel of it. Their eyes met, and he saw it then, the acceptance in her eyes. She already knew what he'd decided. They would go back.

"But could you love a man who would run away?"

She didn't say anything then. She threw her arms around him and pulled him close, and his own arms found their way around her.

Sinbad wanted to remember everything. The feel of her body against his, the scent of her hair, the sotness of her skin, and the sound of her heartbeat. Those were the things he would focus on when he laid his head on the executioner's block; and he would meet his death calmly, comforted by the thought that by doing the right thing he would have moved one step closer to being the kind of man who might have been worthy of her.

* * *

_I recently rewatched the movie and I just loved this scene so much, now as an adult I find it especially moving, and I had to write about it._


End file.
